Hugh Linehan of the Irish Times politics podcast had me on his show to discuss the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk and political violence in America. Hugh surprised me a bit when he said something that is obviously true, that this was the most significant political assassination in America in over 50 years.

I have to say, he graciously let me criticize his own paper’s coverage of Kirk. Like many outlets, it ran a piece that was little more than a regurgitation of a Media Matters dossier of quotes from Kirk that the left would find provocative. I agree that some of the ideas are expressed in a mean fashion, but I don’t think these quotes give a representative idea of what a Kirk event was like, nor do I find them a particularly incriminating bill when considered in light of a dozen years of public controversy.